Americans United - Wiley Drakehttps://www.au.org/tags/wiley-drake
enDrake Drops Death Demand: Baptist Pastor Ends Prayers For Obama's Deathhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/drake-drops-death-demand-baptist-pastor-ends-prayers-for-obamas-death
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Here's some <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=4588&amp;Itemid=53">news</a> you might have missed in the holiday shuffle last week: Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., and former vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has issued a press release calling for the end to an "imprecatory prayer" for President Barack Obama's death.</p>
<p>No, Drake was not overcome with the holiday spirit. Instead, he has received some "spiritual guidance" that made him realize Obama is worth more alive.</p>
<p>He is now "calling for all of God's people and prayer warriors to cease the imprecatory prayer, and pray for Mr. Obama's protection until he can be properly tried for treason."</p>
<p>To remind you, Drake <a href="http://blog.au.org/2009/06/08/grim-reaper-wiley-drake-expands-death-prayers-to-include-president/">announced</a> on Fox Radio in June that he was praying for the death of the president. Even the show's host, Alan Colmes, couldn't believe his ears and asked Drake multiple times in disbelief, "So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States?"</p>
<p>It's as if Drake didn't think the public thought he was crazy enough, he now has changed his tune to be an even bigger joke.</p>
<p>What's more is that his revelation to keep Obama alive and well came from watching a video of James David Manning, pastor at ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York. Manning, who gives Drake a run for his money in the cuckoo department, once referred to Obama during a sermon as "trash" and a "long legged mack daddy," slang for someone who provides prostitutes.</p>
<p>Drake says he was persuaded to drop the death prayers by a video message Manning recorded on Nov. 18. On the video, Manning, addressing Obama, says, "I do not want to see anyone attempt, dream about, think about or ever discuss assassinating you. It is most important to you and to my savior Jesus that you live, and that you live a long life, but that you live that we might be able to bring you to trial. You see, if someone does you harm, and you are not able to be brought to trial, then we lose the opportunity of proving our statements that you are not the president of the United States of America. You are not. You are an illegal alien, a usurper."</p>
<p>Could it be that Manning's words were just so convincing and so powerful that Drake had no choice but to rescind his previous imprecatory prayers? I doubt it.</p>
<p>Instead, it seems Drake and Manning saw this is as yet another tactic to receive some media attention, even if it came at the expense of their credibility (well, what was left of it – if any).</p>
<p>After all, these two love to break the rules to get into the limelight. In the past, AU <a href="http://members.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&amp;page=NewsArticle&amp;id=9319&amp;security=1002&amp;news_iv_ctrl=2289">has asked</a> the IRS to investigate both pastors for partisan electioneering. During the presidential race, Drake endorsed Republican candidate Mike Huckabee and issued a press release announcing this endorsement.</p>
<p>And Manning, in a sermon that ended up on YouTube, <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2008/10/unveils-new-web.html">pleaded</a> with Americans to "not give the White House to that half Negro Barack Hussein Obama. America, don't turn this great nation over to the Negroes. They're not ready yet."</p>
<p>This latest media stunt by Drake and Manning is not shocking. It's just pathetic and laughable. These two cranks deserve one another.</p>
<p>P.S. Drake has in the past announced that he is praying for the death of Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn. It looks like those prayers are still on – unless Drake has found some reason to try Barry for treason as well.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/imprecatory-prayer">imprecatory prayer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-david-manning">James David Manning</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/obama">obama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/partisan-electioneering">partisan electioneering</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religion-and-politics">Religion and politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-right-0">Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/treason">Treason</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wiley-drake">Wiley Drake</a></span></div></div>Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:38:58 +0000Sandhya Bathija2406 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/drake-drops-death-demand-baptist-pastor-ends-prayers-for-obamas-death#commentsPastor Of Hate: When Religious Right Rhetoric Goes Too Farhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pastor-of-hate-when-religious-right-rhetoric-goes-too-far
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Religious Right leaders who claim to be &#039;mainstream&#039; cannot constantly engage in over-the-top rhetoric, hate-mongering and fear-mongering and then say they&#039;re not responsible when bands of extremists are whipped by their words into a frenzy.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>By now, many of you have heard about the preacher in Tempe, Ariz., who is praying for the death of President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Thanks to You Tube, Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church has become kind of famous. Anderson's recent "Why I Hate Barack Obama" sermon has attracted wide attention.</p>
<p>The night before an Obama speech in Phoenix, Anderson howled, "You're going to tell me that I'm supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things – you're gonna tell me I'm supposed to pray for God to give him a good lunch tomorrow while he's in Phoenix, Arizona? Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell."</p>
<p>Asked by liberal radio talk-show host Alan Colmes if he really wants Obama to die, Anderson said, "Absolutely. Now that doesn't mean I'm gonna kill him. But you know what? I believe he should reap what he's sown.... [Obama] deserves to die, because he's a murderer."</p>
<p>Not long after that, Anderson gave <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/31/az-pastor-brain-cancer/">another speech</a>, this time saying, "I hope that God strikes Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy. You know, and I hope it happens today."</p>
<p>Spurred by Anderson's rhetoric, one of his congregants, Chris Broughton, showed up outside Obama's Phoenix event carrying an assault rifle and a handgun.</p>
<p>Anderson also blasts gay people, calling them "predators" who are "infecting our society." He has stated that God wants gays to be "taken out and killed."</p>
<p>Reflecting on all of this, longtime Religious Right researcher Fred Clarkson made an interesting point: Stuff like this doesn't happen in vacuum. Anderson is extreme and strange, but he's merely the <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1801/%22%5Bi%5D_pray_for_barack_obama_to_die_and_go_to_hell%E2%80%9D%3A_the_story_the_media_missed_/?page=entire">latest manifestation</a> of a long-running impulse in American religion and politics.</p>
<p>Christian Reconstructionists have for years called for the imposition of "God's law" in America. They believe in a literal application of the Old Testament's legal code and talk openly about executing gays, adulterers, fornicators, "witches," those who worship false gods and even disobedient teenagers.</p>
<p>Reconstructionists tend to publish their ideas in fat books and obtuse journals that most people don't see. When they gather for meetings, they usually look bland and non-threatening. Most people see them as cranks and write them off as a band of eccentrics with a bizarre philosophy that few take seriously.</p>
<p>The problem is, the Reconstructionists have influenced the Religious Right in ways most don't fathom. The idea that government has a duty to enforce the laws of God – which is at the end of the day the bedrock of the philosophy of the Religious Right – springs from Reconstructionism.</p>
<p>Prior to the rise of Reconstructionism, many conservative Christians believed politics was not their calling. There was another world awaiting them, they believed, and there they would enjoy God's kingdom. All they had to do on Earth was seek converts by spreading their religion through private channels and await the Second Coming.</p>
<p>Reconstructionists dismiss all that. They argue that society can be "perfected" – that is, "reconstructed" – right now. Indeed, they argue that the right type of Christians have an obligation to create a "godly" order and say Christ will not come back until society has been reordered along the proper "biblical" lines.</p>
<p>So religious liberty must go. Legal abortion must go. Gay rights must go. Evolution in the public schools must go. Salacious books and movies must go. Government institutions must be saturated with fundamentalist Christianity.</p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>
<p>Preachers like Anderson are extreme, but in a sense they are simply taking the Reconstructionist philosophy to its logical conclusion. Theirs is not a passive Christianity. They are compelled to act.</p>
<p>We see echoes of this in people like California Pastor Wiley Drake (former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention) who has been praying for the death of Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn and others on the AU staff for years. We see it coming from Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a former Navy chaplain who also prays for the death of Lynn and some of our allies.</p>
<p>We see it when someone like James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, issues a disturbing "letter from the future" <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/election08/653/the_religious_right%E2%80%99s_apocalyptic_visions_of_an_obama_presidency_%C2%A0/">describing</a> a fascistic America under Obama in 2012 where euthanasia is common, guns are banned, public school children are given pornography, the Boy Scouts are shut down, conservative talk shows have been silenced and terrorists run amok with impunity.</p>
<p>And we see it reflected in the people who do more than pray. We see it when people shoot abortion providers and bomb women's clinics. We see it in the actions of extremists who believe they know the mind of God and that this justifies all of their actions.</p>
<p>Religious Right leaders who claim to be "mainstream" cannot constantly engage in over-the-top rhetoric, hate-mongering and fear-mongering and then say they're not responsible when bands of extremists are whipped by their words into a frenzy and begin spewing toxic venom that makes a mockery of public discourse. They cannot claim to be innocent when some unhinged types are prodded to move beyond mere words to "save" America from Religious Right-proclaimed "moral decay."</p>
<p>Pastor Anderson may be another crank looking for 15 minutes of You Tube fame. Or he could be a truly dangerous extremist who has drunk deeply from the wells of a dangerous philosophy.</p>
<p>I'd rather not find out which he is. I'd rather someone rein him in now. The logical candidates for that job are the Religious Right leaders who have so worked him up over the years.</p>
<p>Today Americans United <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2009/09/au-denounces-arizona.html">is asking</a> Religious Right leaders to publicly denounce Anderson and call him out as the extremist that he is. The sooner the better, please.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/christian-reconstruction">Christian Reconstruction</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/fred-clarkson">Fred Clarkson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/gordon-klingenschmitt">Gordon Klingenschmitt</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/president-barack-obama">President Barack Obama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-right-0">Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/steven-l-anderson">Steven L. Anderson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wiley-drake">Wiley Drake</a></span></div></div>Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:44:45 +0000Rob Boston2014 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pastor-of-hate-when-religious-right-rhetoric-goes-too-far#commentsGrim Reaper: Wiley Drake Expands Death Prayers To Include Presidenthttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/grim-reaper-wiley-drake-expands-death-prayers-to-include-president
<a href="/about/people/bathija">Sandhya Bathija</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">It seems the Rev. Wiley Drake, a well-known media hound, has recently been lurking on Fox News Radio, adding more than just AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn &amp; Co. to his death wish list.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The Rev. Wiley Drake is on the warpath again -- and this time, he has really gone too far.</p>
<p>As you may recall, Drake is the pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif. He urged supporters to offer "imprecatory prayers" (curses) <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2007/10/political-pastor.html">against</a> Americans United and specific staff members in August 2007.</p>
<p>It seems Drake, a well-known media hound, has recently been lurking on Fox News Radio, adding more than just AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn &amp; Co. to his death wish list.</p>
<p>Before appearing on Alan Colmes' radio show June 2, Drake had <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=4126&amp;Itemid=53">issued a statement</a> that his imprecatory prayers for the death of slain Kansas Dr. George Tiller had been answered. He said that he "absolutely" believed that God wanted Dr. Tiller dead.</p>
<p>But Drake announced on <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=5660812&amp;maven_referralPlaylistId=&amp;sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/radio/alancolmes/index.html">Fox News Radio</a> something that even Colmes could not wrap his head around. Apparently, in addition to AU's Lynn and Dr. Tiller, Drake has been praying for the death of – wait for it –President Barack Obama!</p>
<p>"So you're praying for the death of the president of the United States?" host Colmes asked in disbelief.</p>
<p>"Yes," Drake responded.</p>
<p>Drake said he didn't fear that these statements would maybe place him on a Secret Service or FBI watch list.</p>
<p>"I think it's appropriate to pray the Word of God," Drake said. "I'm not saying anything. What I am doing is repeating what God is saying, and if that puts me on somebody's list, then I'll just have to be on their list."</p>
<p>Later, still stunned, Colmes restated the question, "You would like the president of the United States to die?"</p>
<p>Answered Drake, "If he does not turn to God and does not turn his life around, I am asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Scripture that would cause him death, that's correct."</p>
<p>It was one thing (though still wrong) for Drake to lash out Americans United back in 2007. After all, he was angry that <a href="http://members.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&amp;page=NewsArticle&amp;id=9319&amp;security=1002&amp;news_iv_ctrl=2289">AU reported his church</a> to the IRS for partisan electioneering. We alleged that Drake violated the law by using church resources to endorse Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.</p>
<p>But it's a completely different story to wish for the death of the president of the United States. It's just plain evil, and it serves as another example of the fanatical thinking of some members of the Religious Right.</p>
<p>"This whole concept that we're always to pray little, nice, soft, fluffy prayers – that we're not to pray imprecatory prayer – has been something that just, in all honesty, that Southern Baptists have lost, and we need to regain imprecatory prayer," Drake said.</p>
<p>"It is in the Bible," Drake continued, "and we are proud to say as Southern Baptists that we believe the Book. You've got to believe the whole Book, brother, or you don't believe any of it."</p>
<p>But it's important to note that while Drake's statements are scary and outrageous, not all Southern Baptists agree with him.</p>
<p>The Rev. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=4131&amp;Itemid=53">personally denounced</a> Drake's comments and said he would ask Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt to do the same.</p>
<p>"They need to be repudiated by Southern Baptist leaders," said McKissic, former president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention pastors' conference and speaker at the group's evangelism conference.</p>
<p>McKissic said Drake's views "are in the same ballpark" as Rush Limbaugh saying he hopes that President Obama's administration will fail.</p>
<p>"Southern Baptists," he said, "don't need to line up with the Rush Limbaughs and Wiley Drakes in attacking Barack Obama."</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alan-colmes">Alan Colmes</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/dr-george-tiller">Dr. George Tiller</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/fox-news-radio">Fox News Radio</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/imprecatory-prayer">imprecatory prayer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/president-barack-obama">President Barack Obama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wiley-drake">Wiley Drake</a></span></div></div>Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:23:35 +0000Sandhya Bathija2358 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/grim-reaper-wiley-drake-expands-death-prayers-to-include-president#commentsWily Wiley: California's Political Pastor Won't Face IRS Sanctions After Allhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/wily-wiley-californias-political-pastor-wont-face-irs-sanctions-after-all
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The IRS may not always agree with Americans United, but it&#039;s clear that the agency is enforcing the law.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it is closing its investigation of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., a congregation that Americans United believed stepped over the line into partisan politics.</p>
<p>Americans United in August asked the IRS to investigate the church after its pastor, the Rev. Wiley Drake issued an e-mail press release on church letterhead endorsing Mike Huckabee for president. Drake later repeated the endorsement on his internet radio show.</p>
<p>The incident sparked a mini-media flap after Drake announced <a href="http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&amp;page=NewsArticle&amp;id=9669&amp;security=1002&amp;news_iv_ctrl=2876">he was praying</a> for the deaths of Americans United staff members. While the "imprecatory prayers" were disturbing, that was always a sideshow. The big question was whether Drake broke the law.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the IRS <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/drake-church-irs-2045593-endorsement-radio?slideshow=1">says no</a>. I think the tax agency is wrong, and I wish its officials had looked at this matter in a little more depth.</p>
<p>The IRS says Drake's endorsement of Huckabee was personal and not done on behalf of his church. It also said that Drake's radio show is not church sponsored, pointing out that Drake runs it from his cell phone wherever he happens to be.</p>
<p>But Drake himself has admitted that his church has a hand in everything he does. After AU reported him, Drake remarked on his radio program, "Yes, I endorsed him [Huckabee] personally and, yes, we use the First Southern Baptist Church. Everything we do is under the auspices of the church."</p>
<p>I think the IRS blew this one. AU provided the tax agency with solid evidence that Drake was violating federal tax law by intervening in an election. Drake boasted about his actions being church sponsored. For some reason, the agency chose to believe Drake when he changed his tune and began claiming his actions were private.</p>
<p>If there's anything good to come from all of this, it's this: The investigation is evidence that the IRS takes reports of partisan politicking by religious groups seriously and should remind religious leaders to make sure they stay on the right side of the law. The IRS may not always agree with Americans United, but it's clear that the agency is enforcing the law.</p>
<p>There's a larger lesson here. Church officials who don't want to face an investigation by the IRS should learn the rules about politicking and abide by them.</p>
<p>It's also worth remembering that, although Drake skated, some churches and religious organizations have faced IRS sanctions. The Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., lost its tax exemption for placing newspaper ads attacking then-candidate Bill Clinton in 1992.</p>
<p>Non-profit religious groups run by Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell have been assessed substantial penalties for intervening in partisan politics. Other pastors have been visited by IRS agents and asked to sign documents promising not to endorse candidates. Still others have been audited.</p>
<p>There are some gray areas in federal tax law, but the bottom line remains the same: Pastors who choose to cross the line into politicking may get away with it or they may not. They must ask themselves if it is worth risking their tax exemption to endorse some candidate.</p>
<p>One other good thing might come of this: Now that he's been cleared, maybe Drake will stop praying for our deaths.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wiley-drake">Wiley Drake</a></span></div></div>Wed, 21 May 2008 15:17:47 +0000Rob Boston1876 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/wily-wiley-californias-political-pastor-wont-face-irs-sanctions-after-all#commentsThe Diabolical Dr. Drake: SBC Official Had More Power Than SBC Flack Admitshttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-diabolical-dr-drake-sbc-official-had-more-power-than-sbc-flack-admits
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p class="MsoNormal">For various reasons, I've been in and out of the AU office recently, so I've been enjoying the latest developments in the Wiley Drake saga from afar via my home computer.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I always seem to miss Drake's diabolical assaults on AU. I was on vacation when Drake issued his first fatwa back in August. While staff members were dealing with his "imprecatory prayers" for their deaths, my family and I were enjoying stunning views at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now the bombastic Southern Baptist pastor from California has attacked again – and this time, officials at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are taking notice – although not in a way we would have preferred.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The latest twist is an e-mail received from Will Hall, Vice President for News Services of the SBC Executive Committee and Executive Editor of Baptist Press. As we reported last week, Hall sent AU a blistering e-mail insisting that we are tarring the SBC by tying Drake to it. Drake's recent position as second vice president of the SBC, Hall insisted, was "honorary. " He has no "duties assigned relating to leadership of the Convention."</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Joe Conn, my supervisor and one of the targets of the <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/Drake_death_prayer_1.14.08_email.pdf?docID=2421">Wrath of Wiley</a>, did a<a href="http://blog.au.org/2008/02/15/of-death-prayers-and-facts-a-response-to-the-southern-baptists-request-for-correction/"> good job of responding to Hall</a>. But since then, some additional information has come to light. It turns out Hall's claim that Drake's position is merely honorary is a crock.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some friendly Baptists we know sent us some interesting information from the SBC's own governing documents. <a href="http://www.sbc.net/aboutus/legal/constitution.asp">Article V</a> of the denomination's Constitution states, "In case of death or disability of the president, the vice presidents shall automatically succeed to the office of president in the order of their election."</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The SBC bylaws state, "[T]he president of the Convention, in consultation with the vice presidents, shall appoint, at least thirty (30) days before the annual session, a Credentials Committee to serve at the forthcoming sessions of the Convention."</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Furthermore, Drake presided over part of the convention's proceedings last year. The minutes show him in charge on June 12, recognizing speakers and calling for reports.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So when he had this position, Drake was in a line of succession had there been deaths or incapacitations. He consulted with the president to make committee appointments. He could run the meeting if the president couldn't or chose not to. The position doesn't sound so powerless after all.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I did not know much about Southern Baptists before I came to work at Americans United in 1987. Although there are Southern Baptist churches in all 50 states, they are not common in the part of the country where I was born. What I did know about them – or thought I knew – was not positive. My reaction back in the early '80s was along the lines of, "Southern Baptist? You mean like Jerry Falwell?"</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have since learned much about the important role Baptists played in the development of the wall of separation between church and state and how a fundamentalist faction turned its back on that heritage. I've come to understand that many Baptists, Southern and otherwise, aren't at all like Falwell. I've also enjoyed working with the numerous Baptists who still support those traditional constitutional principles – religious freedom for all supported by a high church-state wall.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These Baptists are moderate, thoughtful and caring, and they are embarrassed by Drake's antics. They have condemned his actions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hall, on the other hand, is not a moderate. He's trying to distance the SBC from Drake because Drake exposes the extremism of the militant political fundamentalists who have seized control of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Hall wants to present the SBC as mainstream, and Drake rips off that faÃƒÂ§ade.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here's a suggestion for Hall: If you really want to appear mainstream and moderate, condemn Drake's hateful words.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I won't hold my breath until that happens.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/southern-baptist-convention">Southern Baptist Convention</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wiley-drake">Wiley Drake</a></span></div></div>Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:12:53 +0000Rob Boston1850 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-diabolical-dr-drake-sbc-official-had-more-power-than-sbc-flack-admits#comments